Here's What You Didn't Know About Ken Miles

Christian Bale played the role of a lifetime in Ford v Ferrari as racing legend Ken Miles. The film successfully managed to bring the inspiring and enthralling story of building the Ford GT40 to the big screen. But its duration of 2 hours and 32 minutes wasn't enough to capture everything about Miles' life. So, we've decided to give you a peek at the life of Ken Miles by telling you 5 facts about him that may not know.

He served in the war

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Although he raced for an American company, Ken Miles hailed from Great Britain and served the British Territorial Army as a staff sergeant during World War II. During his apprenticeship, he was assigned to an anti-aircraft unit. And later, he even took part in D-Day landings in Normandy as part of a tank unit. It was after the war ended that Miles got hired as an engineer at Morris Motors.

A Hall of Famer

As shown in the film, Ken Miles died in a horrible crash while driving the Ford J-car in August 1966. And it was decades later, in 2001 that he was posthumously inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. Carroll Shelby himself had entered this Hall of Fame back in 1992.

He raced motorcycles

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Another fact about Ken Miles that you might not know is that he raced motorcycles before he got into cars. A 350cc Trials Special Triumph and a 1100cc Salmson were his rides of choice when he started riding at just 11 years old. Miles is also known to have crashed his bike and suffered serious injuries.

Built first car at 15

His love for motorcycles transformed into the love for cars at age 15 when he built an Austin 7 Special and named it "Nellie." This car apparently featured several mechanical modifications that were to become a trademark for all the cars he would build later on in his life.

His death did change racing

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As influential as Ken Miles was during the time he lived, he proved to be equally influential in death. In fact, his unfortunate death changed the racing world forever. Following his fatal crash, while testing the J-car, a NASCAR-style steel tube rollover cage was ordered to be installed in the future generations of the GT40. It later became a norm and has saved many lives in the world of racing. One prominent example is that of Mario Andretti who was involved in a dangerous crash in 1967 but walked away unscathed thanks to the rollover cage.

The world got acquainted with the greatness of Ken Miles through the movie Ford v Ferrari but there was much more to the man than what the movie portrayed. We hope these five facts about him have helped you get a better understanding of the rest of his life.